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Abstract Understanding dynamic processes in battery materials under real-time conditions is critical for advancing electrochemical storage technologies. Here, we develop anoperandooptical technique to probe changes in the wide-field reflectance of vanadium oxide cathodes during cycling in aqueous Zn-ion batteries by using a budget-friendly experimental setup and lab-made Python code. The results indicate that brightness of the vanadium oxide was dramatically changed with intercalation process at certain states-of-(dis)charge. Our methodology correlates wide-field reflectance changes with electrochemical behavior, enablingoperandomonitoring of the materials' evolution in aqueous battery systems. Graphical abstract 

The battery chemistry must be diversified to achieve a sustainable energy landscape by effectively utilizing renewable energy sources. Alkali metal-ion, all-solid-state, metal-air batteries, and multivalent batteries offer unique cost, safety, raw material abundance, energy, and power density solutions. However, realizing these “Beyond Li-ion batteries” must uncover their working principles and performance & property relationship. In this aspect, mitigating chemo-mechanical instabilities in the structure and surface of the electrodes plays a crucial role in their performance. Unfortunately, the coupling between electrochemical and mechanical interactions is often poorly understood due to a lack of operando characterization. This review article explains the working principles of curvature measurement and digital image correlation for measuring stress and strain generations in battery materials. We provided specific examples of how these operando mechanical measurements shed light on instabilities in alkali-metal ion electrodes, solid electrolytes, Li-O2 batteries, and aqueous Zn-ion batteries. Operando mechanical measurements offer an effective way to map changes in the physical fingerprint of the battery materials, therefore providing crucial information to elucidate instabilities in battery materials.